Ever get Déjà Vu when you’re listening to the radio? Kind of like you’ve heard the music somewhere before, but you can’t put your finger on it? Usually, that’s because you have heard the music before and the song you’re listening to is sampling it. “Sampling” is when you take a piece of one song and use it in yours. It’s a legal thing, since the original artist gets money.
Except sometimes, they don’t. That’s called “plagiarism” and, apparently, it’s a no-no. Here are 10 songs you won’t believe were stolen from other songs.
10. The Ghostbusters Theme
Quick, who ya gonna call? If you didn’t answer “ghostBUSTAS”, you have no soul. That line from the movie is as iconic as the Ghostbusters musical theme, which launched the career of Ray Parker Jr. and got itself stuck in everyone’s head for a decade.
Little known however, is that Ray Parker copied the beat from someone else. That someone else was Huey Lewis and the News, an American band that was pretty popular in the 80’s. What happened was that Ghostbusters film producers approached Huey Lewis to make their theme. He respectfully declined since he was already working on the epic theme behind Back To The Future. Instead, the music score job went to Ray Parker Jr., who accepted it without hesitation. Both themes skyrocketed in popularity soon thereafter.
Unfortunately for Ray, Huey Lewis happened to hear the Ghostbuster’s theme because, well, who hadn’t? He immediately lawyered up and sued the ass off Parker, claiming it sounded too much like their song, “I Want A New Drug”. The song, which admittedly has a much better title than “The Ghostbuster’s Theme”, also sounds a hell like it, especially the guitar riff. Ray Parker Jr. was forced to settle out of court.
9. Hips Don’t Lie
In 2006 we learned that Pluto was no longer a planet, and that Shakira’s hips did not indeed lie. The song, released with Wyclef Jean for charity purposes, hit number 1 on the charts and, within days, dominated the radios all over America. The key word here being America. You see, in South America, a song had already hit the charts and done well that sounded a lot like Shakira’s.
It was called “Amores Como el Nuestro”, by popular salsa singer Jerry Riviera. Jerry claimed that Shakira stole the trumpet beat from his song and used it in her hit single. Jerry didn’t press charges, but made the allegations as public as possible; enough so that Shakira didn’t show up for Spain’s Academy of Arts and Sciences Awards (Spain’s Grammys). Entertainment outlets rumored that she was dodging questions about the plagiarism.
It doesn’t end there; a few weeks later another Spanish singer, Luis Dias, accused Shakira of stealing the refrain from one of his songs. And then, Shakira was again accused of stealing lyrics from a popular carnival song sung by a one Fernando Villalona. None of these artists pressed charges.
8. Gladiator Theme
Chances are 90% of any modern theme for a movie, whether it’s The Dark Knight or Pirates of the Caribbean, is composed by a German guy named Hans Zimmer. Hans Zimmer is very popular in the entertainment industry and one of the many movies he composed for was Gladiator. Specifically, the song “The Battle”, which was such a masterpiece it was nominated for an Oscar.
Skip ahead to 2006, when the Holst Foundation apparently hears this song for the first time. They decided that it sounded too much like Gustav Holst’s “Mars, Bringer of War” and so sued Hans Zimmer for copyright infringement. Zimmer, of course, denied all the claims, but even critics reviewing the song heard the similarities. According to one review, “It has a pacing and sometimes a melody that is similar to Gustav Holst’s “Mars, Bringer of War”.
Unfortunately for our love of juicy gossip, whatever happened in court stayed in court and we’ll be forced to check if it was stolen ourselves.
7. Come Together
“Come Together” is one of those songs that make you listen to what’s on today and shake your head in disappointment. It’s the epitome of good Beatles music and the feelings behind the 70’s Occupy hippy movement. Its beat is so pure that it’s been legally covered three times, each by other great bands like Aerosmith. That’s why it’s shocking to hear that the song is so stolen, the Beatles acknowledged they stole it themselves.
In 1973, The Beatles were sued by Big Seven Music Corp which handled Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me”. They claimed that not only was the beat from “Come Together” just Berry’s song slowed down, the lyrics were also stolen. For reference, the lyrics in question are John Lennon’s “Here come ol’ flattop, he come groovin’ up slowly” to Berry’s “Here come a flattop, he was movin’ up with me”.
Both parties settled out of court, but Lennon wasn’t done. He vowed to record three more songs owned by Big Seven Music Corp. Big Music responded politely by doing the same thing to John Lennon, releasing a series of unauthorized outtakes designed to embarrass Lennon. When it was time to take the wreckage to court, both sides lawyered up in what must have been an epic legal showdown. In the end, it was John Lennon that won, to the tune of 85 grand.
6. Vogue
Vogue is one of Madonna’s most famous songs from the past. Legend has it that Madonna was introduced to voguing by the NYC club “Sound Factory” and then she, independently and without ripping off anyone, made the song “Vogue”. Of course that’s how the story goes. In reality, Madonna was thereafter sued for stealing the entire concept and beat of the song from another vogue-centric song called, “Deep in Vogue” by The Sex Pistols’ Malcolm McLaren. Mal released his song in 1989, and Madonna released hers in 1990.
Unfortunately for Mal, Madonna’s single dominated the radio only one year after his own song peaked at number one. Malcolm McLaren was himself at the center of many plagiarism controversies, and so he never got anything out of Madonna. Nevertheless, the plagiarism is pretty apparent.
5. Don’t Stop the Music/Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
Quick! What do Rihanna and Michael Jackson have in common? If you answered, “they’re both black,” then congratulations! You’re really racist! The correct answer is one song- Rihanna’s “Don’t Stop The Music”. The 2007 hit song samples Michael Jackson’s “Wanna be Startin’ Somethin’”, specifically the part when he goes, “Mamma see mama saw mama koosa”. Apparently, plagiarism applies to gibberish too. Or so claims the spectacularly named Manu Dibangu.
Dibangu released his own song way back in 1972 called “Soul Makoosa” which he claims is the original inspiration for Jackson’s 1983 song. And although he’s in his 80’s, Manu had the strength to sue two big time musicians and get this…win. The fault isn’t actually Mike’s, he sampled everything legally. But when it came to transfer the rights to Rihanna, he screwed up. You see, the rights weren’t his to transfer, so both Rihanna and Michael basically ripped off Manu Di-awesomename-bangu.
4. Surfin’ USA
Back in the 60’s, who didn’t love the Beach Boys? They embodied the laid-back, post-war spirit of America. Women went crazy over them much like the way prepubescent girls of today drool over Justin Bieber. So, keeping the Bieber analogy, imagine if we told you that Bieber stole one of his biggest hits from the Beach Boys. Makes sense, right? The Boys are one of the most influential and iconic bands of the past fifty years. Well, if the Boys are that influential and iconic, what does that make the guy that they artistically burglarized?
Basically, Chuck Berry (yup, him again) got pretty pissed off when he heard “Surfin’ USA” on the radio one day. It sounded way too much like his own song, “Sweet Little Sixteen”. Like really, really close. Close enough that, with some analysis, the Beach Boys’ song was a note-for-note rip-off of Chuck Berry’s song. Naturally, Berry went bananas and lawyered up. After a massive lawsuit, Chuck Berry was awarded a writing credit and royalties from the song.
But it doesn’t end there; the lyrics of the song were stolen from another song called, “Kissin’ Time” by Bobby Rydell. There wasn’t a second lawsuit, though, probably because Rydell had actually borrowed a lot from Berry’s other songs when he made that hit. And, as we’ve learned, never ever steal from Chuck Berry.
3. Don’t Matter
Oh man, not Akon. If you’ve read this far, you probably know how this will end: two men fighting in a pool filled with mayonnaise for some reason. “Don’t Matter” was one of Akon’s first songs and was an immediate hit in the US, Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. It was such a hit in fact, that it made it on Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Songs of 2007 list. For reference, it beat out Foo Fighter’s Grammy award winning “Pretender” by 15 places (32 versus 47). Holy Jeez, it was probably an epic ballad or something, right?
Well, the reason it probably did well was because it had done well before. Back when it was called “Ignition” and was song by R. Kelly. R Kelly’s song also dominated Europe and Australia, years before Akon was a thing. Which is why fans were quick to note the similarities in the two and called bulls*** faster than the janitor at an all cow’s bar. As of now, no legal action has been taken by anybody, which is kind of sad. On the upside, Akon also stole the lyrics from Bob Marley’s classic, “Zimbabwe,” just to make sure he pissed all of his fans off.
2. Girlfriend
Avril Lavigne, the girlfriend you can never ever have, reinvented the world of mainstream pop rock in 2002 with her debut single, “Complicated”. Despite being Canadian, she’s managed to stay relevant for the past 10 years. And she’s on this list, which can only can one thing which can only mean one thing: she’s a big ‘ol thief.
Her 2007 chart-topper “Girlfriend”, contains lyrics that, holy Hell, are a lot like the Rubinoos’ “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.” Lavigne staunchly defended her song, despite being dragged into court by Rubinoos Founder, Tommy Dunbar. According to her, “Girlfriend” was merely similar to “Boyfriend”, just like it was similar to the Rolling Stones, and there was no plagiarism. Unfortunately, the court didn’t agree and she was forced to settle out of court before things became messy. And messy court proceedings are, like, so whatever.
1. Are You Gonna Be My Girl
When Jet released “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”, everyone was certain that they would be the next Green Day. The rock song was just perfect, capturing both the radio and the rock crowds while providing a song that made you want to get up and dance. So when people started hearing the similarities between that and Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life”, calls of blasphemy went around. Jet got a steamy pile of bad press and everyone waited to see if Iggy Pop would press charges. He didn’t, and Jet frontman Cameron Muncey had to go on air and call the whole thing off.
That would have been it, had it not been for the fact there are multiple songs that sound like Jet’s. The most popular one would have to be “You Can’t Hurry Love” by the Supremes; that song, incidentally, was likely ripped off by…Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life”. The whole thing comes full circle. Whether they really ripped off so many bands or if this is all one big music conspiracy is unknown since no one apparently has lawyers here. I guess we’ll have to check ourselves.
Mohammed Shariff can be followed on Twitter and Facebook.
119 Comments
You say that Lust For Life was ripped off, but Lust For Life was actually a massive ripoff of Bo Diddley’s song called, simply, Bo Diddley. Iggy Pop is just one of numerous artists who ripped off that song, but it’s one of the most highly profiled.
Listen to Country Boy by Aaron Lewis and Rockstar by Nickleback – VERY much the same. Also, most of John Williams’ movie themes are taken from classical works
What about Tell him by Colbie Caillat and Die in your arms by Justin Bieber – original from We’ve got a good thing going by Michael Jackson …
If somebody listens to a lot of one artist’s music, it would only seem to make sense that what they write will be similar to what they grew up listening to. If you move to England, you will start to sound British. Intentional or not, it will happen. If Jay-Z would listen to the Beatles for 2 hours a day, I bet his songs would start to sound like the Beatles next year. Just don’t try it with Chuck Berry songs.
Just because it couldn’t be proved in court doesn’t make it not true. Do you have any idea how many old black blues musicians got ripped off for their songs and could never get a penny because they couldn’t afford to continue to fight against big companies? That doesn’t make it right.
Besides which, Laveen’s music is for morons, she’s a talentless hack and deserves all the flack she gets. And if you are talking about accuracy, Fox is considered the most trusted by a vast majority of the public. You are probably thinking of MSNBC, which is trust by less than 10% of the people who bother to watch, the kind of people who still think obama is jesus jr. and will save the world. The rest of us tried to tell you in 2008. Like Mike Moore said, besides being totally incompetent, the only thing obama will ever be remembered for is being black.
The Avril Lavigne one is ballocks. The court voted in her FAVOUR. She didn’t have to settle out of court. Both tracks were analysed by professionals and their case was thrown out.
You guys really need to do your research, so much of the info on this site is totally wrong. What is this, Fox news?
A couple more:
Free’s It’s All Right Now vs AC/DC’s Highway to Hell
Fastball’s The Way vs Beseme Mucho
* Bèsame
We shouldn’t make any statements about the similarities in these songs, if we are not going to say anything about the hiphop hits where music is taken from a rock song and the “artist” makes vulgar statements over the track instead of, you know, singing the song.
There was never any legal action about the Jett/Iggy Pop song similarities because, like the song by The Supremes, the only similarity was the beat. Beats can’t be copyrighted. Only melody, harmony and lyrics can.
What? Where is Coldplay’s entry on this list? Not satisfied with riffs they take entire melodies from other songs. In their song “Talk” they take most of Kraftwerk’s 1981 song “Computer Love”. In an interview they basically said (and I’m paraphrasing here), “The breadth of music is so wide and our fans are so stupid and ignorant they will never notice we took most of the instrumentation from this song to write Talk.”
Well, up yours Coldplay. I noticed and I hate you for it.
AND “Viva la Vida” vs “If I could fly”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvB9Pj9Znsw
It’s not just pop/rock songs that get ripped off. Al jolson’s hit “Avalon” stole its melody from “E Lucevan le Stelle”, the beautiful aria from Puccini’s “Tosca”.
Ghostbusters sounds nothing like I wanna new drug. You people are deaf. A drum beat? Really? If we are going by beats just about every song is the same. The vocal melodies are completely diffrent and that is legally 99% of the song.
I’m pretty late here, but 2 things- Ghostbusters didn’t launch Ray Parker Jr’s career. He’d already had a succesful R&B band called Raydio and been solo for years – See The Other Woman-,
and you forgot Billy Ocean’s Carribean Queen ripping off Michael Jackon’s Billy Jean.
Everybody in the rock music business should send 10% of their earnings to Chuck Berry.
How is saying Rihanna and Michael Jackson are both black even remotely close to being racist?..
They forgot Vanilla Ice copied David Bowie w/ Queen’s Under Pressure. This one really gets under my skin, because people only remember Vanilla Ice’s version.
They forgot the biggest one of all. My sweet Lord by George Harrison and He’s so fine by the Chiffons. In 1978 George settled out of court with them,
Actually no, he took it to a judgment, and the copyright owner for the song got $7mil.
You know, you don’t actually “press charges” for plagiarism, it’s not a criminal offense. You sue in civil court for damages. Although I do wish Queen could have had Vanilla Ice’s arse put in prison.
Vanilla Ice could then have done a Renovation on his cell and ended up with a show on HGTV….
Oh wait… he did end up with a show on HGTV.
all of you are srsly deluded. there is, nor has there ever been any such thing as an original idea.
How Ricki Martin’s “La Vida La Voca”? That song ripped off the rhythm from Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”?
That one’s a bit of a stretch.
So what if the author ripped on Canadians. Sticks and stones may break our bones right?
I think the important thing here is that the rest of the article is horrible too, it is obvious to me that whoever put this article together knows ALMOST absolutely nothing about about music and /or songwriting.
For a little self education you can visit whosampled.com. There you can pass a little time and find more than passing similarities, samples, and downright plagiarism. There you might discover that nothing in art is original and all is recycled and reinvented. This is the only way it can be as each generation learns from the previous and then puts their own spin on it. Its not as if art just materializes out of thin air. But so what of it, sampling has changed music and made so much more possible.
Sadly nowadays lawyers have more say than artists. Or perhaps it is more that too many songwriters have lawyers. I for one feel current copyright legislation is out of hand and mourn the death of public domain.
Stricter Laws Don’t Make Better music. Richer Musicians Don’t Make Better music. So Frankly who gives a S#$T if there is a passing resemblance between a rocking Jet song and some old almost forgotten Motown tune. That’s the essence of music reusing and readapting melodies.
What about nirvana? There song “come as you are” is completely ripped off from killing jokes “eighties”
You forgot Vanilla Ice stealing the bassline from Queens Under Pressure for his only song, Ice Ice Baby
What about Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby being a rip-off of a song by Queen and David Bowie? That went to court.
So making the observation that Michael Jackson and Rihanna are black makes me a racist? Are black people ever racist? Or do they always get to be the victims?
Nope they aren’t but you are for asking that question.
BIGOT! (points finger)
I think you missed my sarcasm. You’re comments are typical of all the overzealous PC admonishing and racist witch hunts we’ve been subjected to. It’s affecting our freedom of speech and obviously, from your post, our critical thinking skills. The unspoken rules are: Black people can’t be racist because they are given the role of “repressed”. Even if they do act out in a racist manner it’s ok because they’ve been repressed. White people have been cast in the role of racist oppressor, so they are always in the wrong. All of this is racist in itself. It’s wrong. Think past your conditioning.
Muse – Survival rips off Innuendo by Queen.
Muse – United States of Eurasia also rips off Innuendo by Queen
Muse – Madness rips off I want to break free by Queen and Faith by George Michael
What about 50 cents hit “Go shorty, its your birthday” rap? No one remembers that a British rapper performed the song b4 50 cents did. I forgot who the artist that sued 50 was.
you are WAY off….
In January 2006, 50 Cent was sued for copyright infringement by former 2 Live Crew manager Joseph Weinberger, who owns the rights to the rap group’s catalog. He claimed that 50 Cent plagiarized the lines “it’s your birthday” from former 2 Live Crew frontman Luther Campbell on his 1994 album Still a Freak for Life.[30] The lawsuit was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Paul Huck, who ruled that the phrase was a “common, unoriginal and noncopyrightable element of the song”.
Taken from wikipedia.
The Beatles could have sued 2 Live Crew and 50 cent for the same reason…. pretty frivolous.
– Pause – then berate you more for saying
“No one remembers that a British rapper performed the song b4 50 cents did.”
This is so true, except that there is one person who “remembers” that.
Is this like saying “No one remembers that the earth is flat.” or more like “No one remembers the guy who posted stupid S#!T on the internet” ? Cause I gotta say you’ve got me really confused with that statement.
I’ve got more…
Beyonce “Countdown” vs Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDT0m514TMw
Beyonce Billboard Awards 2011 VS Lorella Cuccarini 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRrq3vPLSZY
Hall and Oates I Can’t Go For That; beat was sampled/copied by Michael Jackson in Billie Jean and also by Madonna’s Like a Virgin.
Also Hall and Oates’ Maneater’s beat is copied by Stevie Wonder in his song Part Time Lover.
Not to mention Wham’s “Last Christmas” sounding like Barry Manilow’s “Can’t Smile Without You”. And Britney Spears’s “I’ve Just Begun (Having my Fun)” sounding like No Doubt’s “Hella Good”.
What about the verses of America’s “Daisy Jane” & Janet Jackson’s “Let’s Wait a While”?
http://youtu.be/2JYuuk4L2Vc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvKhDiNME4E
The one I know is the song “On the Floor”, from Jennifer Lopez, that was stolen from Lambada, of the group Kaoma. The song Lambada is quite famous in Brazil.
yea ok…wa stolen from a peruvian band, which legally took the rights from the original bolivian authors…go fys
Everybody ripped off Chuck Berry…everybody!!! Chuck Berry was, is, and always will be the TRUE KING OF ROCK AND ROLL, PERIOD!!!
YES!!! YOU read my mind!!
I thought Beyonce’s If I were a Boy would be here
SINCE it was STOLEN from BC Jean with only minor word changes here and there.
I remember about 1990 the two-hit-wonder Pebbles (“Girlfriend”, “Mercedes Boy”) released a second album with an R&B lead single called “Giving You the Benefit” which sounds like the music was lifted directly from Bobby Brown’s “Ghostbusters II” theme, “On Our Own”. Funny thing is, her song improved on it.
You forgot to mention just about every song Led Zeppelin and Dream Theater have ever “written”. I’m an enormous Zeppelin fan, but their first album completely ripped off everyone. It was horrid.
Dream Theater is the most unoriginal band on the planet. They may as well rename themselves “The Official Tool Cover Band”.
“Home” is the same song as “FortySix&2”. Literally, note for note. They just came up from a Drop D tune. They also have ripped off King Crimson, Metallica, Rush, Faith No More, etc.
Worst band ever.
fair enough the song girlfriend has its similarities but its very unlikely for avril to publish a song she knows she’s ripped off. before the case was taken to court avril wasnt shy to deny that she was drunk while writing the song. the whole thing is very cruel, avril is sweet natured girl and has continued to survive in the music industry without ‘ripping off’ any other songs? i think its just one big misunderstanding.
So the author of this article calls racist those who note descriptive similarity between MJ and Rihanna (I’m one of them by the way: they are both of African heritage, among other things). Yet the same author calls a well known Swahili verse, “gibberish?”
Brilliant.
Rhianna is not of African american heritage. She is from Barbados.
How is it racist to notice two people are black?
It’s a joke
Don’t forget “Do ya think I’m sexy” by some old dude was ripped of from a Brazilian song called “Taj Mahal.” The dude settled out of court and all profits from the song went to a charity in Brazil.
re: Shakira
Luis Dias was–he passed away in Dec. 2009–a Dominican singer/songwriter who wrote the song he claimed Shakira plagiarized, “Carnaval (Baila en la Calle)”, which was made popular by fellow Dominican Fernando Villalona.
This is wrong Shakiras song had a sample, the guy that wrote the original song Alfanno was involved in the production of Shakiras album and let them use their old song. The old song was just performed by Jerry RIvera and another guy. Alfanno the writer even said that if they wanted to sue they should give it a shot because the song didnt even belong to them in the first place.
In the section about Shakira’s song, you write that Luis Dias is spanish, he’s really dominican.
One of Hans Zimmers FIRST scores was Galdiator? Man….you really do not do research, do you?
Okay, so it was really about his 70th movie he composed on. Was that so bad? Okay, yes. To appease your lust for justice I have fired the writer, burned his house down, salted the earth and, oh yes, I corrected the mistake. Thanks for letting us know. Anyone want to more about Hans Zimmer’s composing career: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001877/#Composer
How about this?
Lost Trailers- American Beauty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K4-XLeH6Ls
stolen from
Jason Mraz- I’m Yours
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl88QEll-Xc
Suprised that Britney spears – Oops i did it again isn’t on this list, it was originally by Louis Armstrong
This is stupid in most of these cases, the record company not the artist owns the music. They need permission from the record artist to sample the music and the money goes to the original owners of the music not the artist that perform the song.
Then there’s Men At Work’s “Down Under”, which got them in trouble for grabbing the “Kookaburra” riff.
J.Lo followed the leader song it is also a rip off from an 80’s dominican merengue singer by the name of Monchi Capricho. The song name is Colegiala. Listen to the rythm and the way the lyrics go and you will see.
Why isn’t there anything written about Elvis Presley and how he ‘resang’ a bunch of african-american songs? He just made them a little more appealing to the ‘white’ public and made a fortune
THANK YOU!!!! ELVIS ripped off REAL songwriters and MUSICIANS for his own gain….I hate how this man CONSTANTLY gets credit when he doesn’t DESERVE IT!
I agree with you wholeheartedly but I’m not resentful in fact I’m glad he did for all of our sakes. His impact on popular music helped get the ball rolling to start a virtual revolution (which in time actually) helped to spawn actual ones.
Far be it from long live the king but I see him as one of many key players that have helped music develop into what it is today.
What about Crazy Town’s song “Butterfly” ripping off Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s “Pretty Little Ditty”? The riff is exactly the same. But Idk whether that was legal or not, but still.
Ah just looked it up, apparently they were good friends so gave them the riff or something.
They sampled that guitar part..legally. I never, EVER in my life thought I would defend a band as bad as CT….I am shame :*(
I can’t believe this list didn’t include Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” ripping off Madonna’s “Express Yourself”
Nor did they mention that Madonna ripped off the beat for “Justify My Love” from Public Enemy, cab’t remember the name of the PE song off hand.
hope this helps
http://www.whosampled.com/sample/view/998/Madonna-Justify%20My%20Love_Public%20Enemy-Security%20of%20the%20First%20World/
Lenny kravitz made the song, not Madona, she just co wrote it. And btw. she said that she is challenging PE to show one of their song that was without taken riff of another song, they failed, then disappear from the scene ….
You’re gonna bust on “Are You Going to Be My Girl” for ripping off “Lust for Life” & “You Can’t Hurry Love” but totally failed to notice that the chorus vocal line is an EXACT note-for-note recreation of Keith Richards’ guitar solo in “Sympathy for the Devil”?
For shame!
Agreed. Plus I thought Lust for Life was most often compared to The Doors “Touch Me”.
The chili peppers should get a mention. I’m sure they’ve sneakily borrowed a riff or two in their time. 2 that spring to mind are tom petty’s mary jane’s last dance (dani california) & the eagles one of these nights (s*ck my kiss)
Apparently you didn’t know that RHCP caught the “Dani California” thing pretty quickly after the single was released, and before the album came out, they apologized publicly to Tom Petty and offered him some of the royalties which he turned down.
Coldplay v Satriani v cat stevens.
Avril Lavigne Ripped off KISS too.
First time I heard “complicated” I immediately thought of “I love it loud”. Apparently so does sombody else. you tube KISS vs Avril Lavigne or the link below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRuc70ck820
I’ve got a story. Bo Diddley was at the Chess studios in 1955 recording his first session, while Muddy Waters walked by. Muddy was already an established artist and he thought some kid was doing a demo for his next single, and commented on that (I guess something like “that sounds good for my next hit, boy, keep it up”). Diddley said, “No, I’m not gonna give this tune to you *add some insults here*”. A song with an exactly similar guitar riff was released by both artists in due time, as “I’m A Man” by Bo Diddley and as “Mannish Boy” by Muddy Waters (with somewhat angry lyrics at some boy who thinks he’s a man).
Another opportunity lost to finally explain the difference between plagiarism and sampling. Most people get these two confused.
But it’s utterly ridiculous to have a list about plagiarism and not include Led Zeppelin or the Black-Eyed Peas. True, Zep didn’t release many singles, but the ones they did put out as singles were all partially plagiarized.
You forgot “ICE ICE BABY” by Vanilla Ice copied from the song “UNDER PRESSURE” By the Queen
That was acknowledged and announced. These are the ones which weren’t and which most of us didn’t know about.
THAT’S why they didn’t include Lady Gaga!
or Led Zepplin….
Whoever writes about the Beatles for this site really needs to do their homework. Last week they got it wrong saying that Let It Be was the final album they recorded, now it’s Come Together being about the 70s hippy movement. It’s common knowledge that the hippy movement happened in the 60s and Come Together was released in 1969.
No, we do not have to do more research because we were quoting our information accurately. Sorry if that offends you somehow.
So you maintain that the hippy movement happened in the 70s and that’s when Come Together was released? I’m not offended at all, just pointing out your errors, as I’m sure many other Beatles fans would. As a matter of interest, what sources are you quoting here? Because I’d stop if I were you. Try Wikipedia or http://www.Beatles.com in future.
im gonna have to side with berry on this one
And it says that the Beach Boy embodied post war freedom in the ’60s…the war didnt end until 1975
I assumed that he was referring to World War II as youth culture really began to take off in the post war years particularly the 50s with the advent of Rock N Roll etc.
Don’t forget the Korean War in the 50s.
You missed what’s probably the biggest of all: My Sweet Lord / He’s So Fine.
I’ve heard that Johnny Cash was influenced by a song of the times when he wrote Folsom Prison Blues. Perhaps I should have said “wrote”. Regardless, there’s no one who sang it like the man in black.
Johnny Cash was the man. Do you know what Trent Reznor (the composer of “Hurt”, Nine Inch Nails) said after hearing Cash’s version? “OK, I wrote it, but it’s his song now.” (or something like that) 😀
What about Kid Rock? The man that takes classic rock songs and takes a big **** all over them.
I’m sorry that I comment again, but I just remembered a famous case that wasn’t mentioned: George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord vs. The Chiffons’ He’s So Fine. I think Harrison’s lawyer bought the rights to the other song finally… I think. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Sweet_Lord
What about every Blues song ever written?
I thought that would be number one.
#9: None of these (male) artists pressed charges against Shakira, but settled out of court. May we please have the video? How did they settle? In what position was each party while they settled? (sorry about my dirty mind) 😀
Oh, and I guess you better not mess with Chuck Berry.
May I ask why the “despite being Canadian, she has stayed relevant?”
It’s a joke. About people being Canadian. IDK what nationality the author is, but as a citizen of the US we make A LOT of jokes about Canada. Don’t take it personally…
MAN, n.
An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earth and Canada.
-Ambrose Bierce: “The Devil’s Dictionary”-
Despite being a fat nation, the US can still fit in army uniforms and start wars all over the world. It’s a joke. Don’t take personally…
Despite being that fatest we are also the BEST. Who do the other nations come for help?
You are going to love the list we are working on now. It deals with America….that is all I can say for now.
Update: Here is the list I was referring to: https://www.toptenz.net/top-10-reasons-to-be-proud-of-the-united-states.php
The USA may be the best right now, but all empires fall eventually. Just ask the Brits, The Greeks, the Persians, etc….
Why are we obligated to help?!?! People live in America. If all the tax money is being spent on someone else’s war the country can’t survive. Just look at the downhill slope I’m the last 8 years.
China dude. Nobody likes American help from my part of the world cos they come with too many strings attached to it.
The best at what? Being internet trolls? The best haters? the best wasters? the best debters? the best liars? the best killers? all of the above? do tell, American is waiting for an answer of some sort.
Whoever you are for president! That was insanely hilarious. I’m American and I took no offense because it’s true.
UnrulyCanuck> your right except we are not the Greeks or the Persians. The USA….is Rome (more the Republic than the Empire). Think about it, we have the largest most agile military in the world. Even if its not intentional, just from our presence/footprint around the world, our language, culture, etc. are influencing almost every corner of the globe. Also, we are likely to fall from within, the victim of our own elected officails and their ability to pacify the masses while ultimately destroying the state from within, (ie-bread and circuses)
Apparently some people think it’s still hilarious to rip on Canadians, when it got old nearly thirty years ago already.
We’ll have the last laugh when they finally elect a Canadian to the white house.
Why else would we study your music and television shows so closely? It is so that we can slip in amongst you all unnoticed and ursurp your leadership.
Tents his fingers MUHAHAHA!
“despite being Canadian, she has stayed relevant?”
Sounds pretty racist to me, not like this article was judgemental at anyone being racist at all…
“Quick! What do Rihanna and Michael Jackson have in common? If you answered, “they’re both black,” then congratulations! You’re really racist!”
Oh Wait!
Pot calling the kettle black there.
Hypocritical author we’ve got here.
Congratulations…
You need to learn the definition of racist. 2012 and some people still don’t know. A-mazing.
Canadians are not a race! They are a nationality! Wow some people
congratulations on being a freakin moron and not understanding what racism is. canadian is not a race. neither is american.
congrats! The person who wrote this article is extremely racist!
I know, that’s rude. Canadians are just like regular people.